I'm still trying to work out a happiness index of the cities I've been through....I've narrowed it down to being very activity based. More on that (hopefully) to come.

The most valuable lesson I've extracted from this trip so far involves experiencing an idea I've known--but was a bit suspicious of (sorry Joseph Campbell!)--all along. Our lives can be spent carrying out actions that we hope will lead us to a greater sense of purpose, acoomplishment and meaning, but all these are secondary to the need to feel alive. And when we pursue the activities that make us truly feel alive, we discover the places and people and things we always had wished existed--people and places and things that have always been there--waiting patiently for our arrival.

Have to give credit to Campbell for the thought behind it. My undergraduate degrees were in Lit and Philosophy. Some ideas, once in your head, can never be removed and forever change your perception of the world, of people and yourself. Books, passages and even single sentences can be like mental viruses that infect you with just a single touch, leaving you suffering for days or even months with a form of truth-based insanity. Other ideas require action and experimentation before they become true or real. This latter type is obviously a little more fun....

Subscribed. Picking up my new sportbike (an R1200S) on Tuesday in Marin and taking a few days to ride down the coast back to San Diego. Nothing quite as epic as your ride, but should be fun nonetheless!

So I think I mentioned it before, but it deserves mention again. Part of this road trip of mine was to put myself out in the world, just to see what would happen. I’m reserved over gregarious, and prefer solitude over social interaction. This kind of demeanor allowed me to develop in my own peculiar way and gave me the time I needed to focus on cultivating my interests. I enjoyed being in the world, but usually only from a distance. A stark contrast from where I am now!

But the experiment was to put myself out there, expose myself to different people and places and see what happens. In short, change the relationship I have with the real world to see what happens. And then one thing literally led to another....

An inmate sent me a link to a club meeting, I showed up and met Kim, the Ducati MN Club President and her husband Gabe, a motorcycle racing instructor from Zaluski Advanced Riding School. Kim had mentioned I should hit up Bob’s Java Café, which I did—and on my way back saw the Ducati Minneapolis Dealer. I figured, what the hell, and stopped in. Ended up meeting the entire crew who worked/owned the place, and then ran into John Meyer from DOOM.

Each and every connection seemed to lead to other connections and each and every person, knowing at least a little about my endeavor, generously helped out in whatever way they could. It really blows my mind just how kind, helpful and supportive other people have been. I’ve honestly not been sure how to react, but I can say that all of the encouragement, assistance and support that’s come from the good people on this thread and the truly genuine people I've recently met has shifted my perception of human nature.

John from DOOM called me up and said to head over to Ducati Minneapolis, as they had a 'gift' for me. ??? Ok, sweet! Now, the thing about new cities and states is they all do things a little differently. In Pennsylvania, for instance, I blew threw I don't know how many stop signs because there is no big, idiot-proof "STOP" painted prior to the intersection (like they do in CA and most states), and often no intersection lines. Add to that a bunch of trees and, well...you get my point. Once you know, you quickly adapt.

Well, other than the washboard roads here in MN, I hadn't noticed anything too peculiar or different. When I glanced at this intersection:

I should have--but didn't--see that tiny little vertical one way sign and while at that intersection, turned right. (You see it, don't you?) Now had there been a car within 30-40 feet I would have seen it and not turned (there's more than one reason to look where you're going), but there wasn't, and I turned and felt like a total idiot when I saw two cars coming at me (at probably 50mph) and one ready to turn right into me from the parking lot there on the left. GAH! Moron.

I had hoped that no one inside saw.....but unfortunately they did. Double GAH!

Later driving home I saw another car at a different intersection do exactly the same thing, so at least I had good company, but now I'm driving around paranoid that someone is going to turn into me!

In any case--scary. I could easily have ended up in the hospital trying to type this report with my tongue.

So I took the bike in this morning and Alex at Duc Minneapolis hooked the Panigale up to the Dyno:

171hp/92 ft/lb of torque. :)

Their Panigale demo put down 176, which would have made me happier. 5hp is a lot, until of course you consider that 5hp is only about a 3% difference, well within the range of +/- and still a shit-ton of superfluous power.

While they're doing work on my bike, I snapped more shots of their kick-ass dealership and the wicked bikes contained within its walls.

Customer bike in the shop:

Not sure if the name subliminally planted the image in my head, but whenever I see the Diavel I can't help but picture the Devil himself riding it with one arm in the air, the other on the throttle, thick pointy tail curved up and blowing in the wind:

And now, though there's probably no bike that, to me, is sexier than the paint scheme of Rainey's YZR500...

...the Corse scheme comes close. It's like some sort of optical prophecy, visually reproducing the perfect image of passion and austerity, anger and reserve, as if it's just sitting there waiting for a precise moment in time to disclose the purpose of its patience.

From the glorious 848 Color schemes it's clear that Ducati knew it had to do SOMETHING that didn't involve tooling to keep people buying 848s in what I'm guessing is their final production run. And fuck yes it's working (at least for the purposes of this moto-porn post). How the Japanese have not yet learned a lesson from Ducati's aesthetics teams blows my mind. I love Japanes bikes, but the adolescent graphics have got to go. Gather around engineers of the rising sun. You want to sell yesteryear's bike tomorrow? Here's how it's done: